The Gamer Chapter 1313 – Fusion Festival 20 – Getting Shown Around (Patreon)

John barely knew which part of the Hudson Barrier they were in now. He was following Nia with swift steps. The penultimate date of the day, and of the Fusion anniversary, saw him being the participant rather than the planner for once. All he had done was issue a request: for this date, he had wanted Nia to show him what exactly she got up to when she vanished for hours, sometimes days, on end.

Without much rhyme or reason, they were currently jumping over rooftops. The path Nia took on this seemed archaic at first glance. Already, John had realized that she was avoiding all of the occupied houses.

Currently in the air, at a high-point of his jump, John watched Nia land soft as a feather on the roof of a single family home. A trio of birds sitting at its edge, drinking rain water out of a clogged drain, was entirely disinterested at her gracefully running by them. It made John feel like he was a cumbersome block of iron by comparison when his mere approach to the roof sent the birds into a panicked flight.

Nia gained speed on the roof and then leapt down into an empty crossroad. A couple moments later, John landed close behind her. The blonde finally slowed down. Although she walked with regular strides, the skirt of her white dress still fluttered in intense winds and her hair waved in an entirely different, unnatural way.

Utterly desensitized to such happenings around her, John put an arm around her. To the uninformed onlooker, it would have appeared like that action got whole-heartedly ignored. Nia was turning her head and torso in search of something. When she turned her head to kiss him, she did so without any previous tell and returned to watching the plaza immediately.

“There,” Nia just said, then she was gone.

The Gamer stood in the middle of the empty crossroads, alone, an arm awkwardly in the air. Scanning the direction she had been looking in, he saw her inside one of the vacant houses. ‘Now what did she find?’ John walked up to the house and then teleported through the wall himself. He ended up behind Nia.

Among the many things he had expected, Nia petting a python was actually not that far down the list. The snake was enormous and had bright red scales, with a black ink-blot pattern all over them. The rim of its head was almost dragon-like, with many horny protrusions marking it. “What is that?” John asked, interested. It leaned into each pet with affection and appeared to be smiling. It clearly was an Abyssal variant of a python.

“Saharan Arcane Devourer,” Nia answered immediately. When it came to animals, she did not have to contemplate long to find the correct facts. “It is a Drifter species that eats remains of magical energy.”

“Interesting,” John said. Drifter species referred to the kind of Abyssal animals that could exit an Illusion Barrier by entering Gaia’s magical network that was responsible for powering those capsules of reality. Among sapient creatures, only gods were usually capable of doing this. When it came to Abyssal animals, it was more common. It was either this ability, camouflage, or bonding with humans, when it came to allowing such animals to migrate. Because this network was either part of or parallel to leylines, Drifter species eventually ended up in every major Illusion Barrier. Some of them were menaces, some of them were pests, and some of them were useful.

The Gamer was not sure what this python fell under. That was a problem. For one, because not knowing something was terrible for his paranoia. For two, because the python’s considerable length was coiled up on what was a nest made from ripped apart bits of couch and armchair cushioning. The eggs were blue and emitted soft light, like a glow-in-the-dark toy.

John solved the problem by trusting Nia would not keep from him what would be an issue in the long-term. If this snake started eating intact arcane machinations, he would hear about it. Kneeling down, he offered his hand to be sniffed like he would have with a dog.

“No,” Nia told him. “Like this.” She held a spread-out hand above the python’s head. It opened its jaw, revealing a toothless maw and a surprisingly human tongue. A lick across Nia’s palm was closely followed by it bumping its head against it. A squeak, like a young crocodile or a particularly lifelike chew toy, could be heard.

The python expected more scratches from Nia and pulled back its head in disappointment when her hand retreated instead. A pointer at John made the snake focus on him, who replicated the demonstrated gesture. The soft tongue licked over his hand. The snake snapped back.

John stayed calm and still. Particle Skin hadn’t triggered, so he had nothing to fear from this level 13 creature. Confused, the animal turned its head and slowly got closer. Another lick, and it then pulled back again. A third, and then it did not back off at all. Instead, the snake was slobbering all over his hand.

“I assume that’s unusual?” John wondered, turning his hand to let the python get the other side. This was amusing, in its own way. That it was a snake doing it did cause some easily ignored revulsion in his human instincts. What he experienced was similar to the way dogs sometimes licked the hands of people to get residue food or salt.

“She is tasting your mana.”

“Well, my body is rather unusual.” John let the snake continue. Whatever it was extracting by doing this, it was not taxing his mana reserves. “Did they first find these things in the Sahara or why the name?”

“They are most common there.”

“Any reason why?”

“Unknown.”

“Interesting… not exactly the kind of densely populated area that would usually attract Drifter species…” He made a mental note to tell Momo about this. Either there was something ancient to discover there or this was a very odd fluke of nature. Both were worth looking into. “Are there a lot of arcane eating species in and around the Sahara?”

“They are most common around the Sahara, Mesopotamia, and Latin America.”

John understood Mesopotamia, considering the number of ruins in that area. Latin America was difficult. Very little Abyssal records existed about that area. From what Momo had pieced together in her many archaeological research sessions, the native Abyssals in the area had been eradicated by the conquering Europeans. There was some strangeness there because apparently there had been a year after which resistance just suddenly stopped. How reliable that data was could be debated. As a matter of fact, Momo debated it with herself constantly.

Nowadays, the only interesting thing in the Abyssal side of Latin America were several outposts by the Purest Front – the Nazi remnants that had coalesced and then grown into a world power down in Brazil.

Not something he wanted to keep thinking about on a date. “It’s pretty adorable,” he admitted.

“Yes,” Nia nodded intensely, “very adorable. 12 out of 10. Would visit again.”

A quick kiss was planted on the snake’s head and then Nia led the way to the front door. It was as abrupt as most things she did. The snake followed John’s hand for a bit. Once it would have needed to slither off its nest to keep feeding, it stopped. It squeaked again, while John followed his date out the door.

Their chaotic trip through the Hudson continued. From the mostly unpopulated outer areas towards the more coastal properties and back again. John was shown all matters of animals he had no idea were present in his capital. This ranged from wild cats, to moles, over to a colony of fist-sized ants. The latter very popular with the locals. It was a herbivore species that cut grass to an aesthetically-pleasing length and gnawed fresh branches close to the ground off most types of trees and shrubs. Gardenkeeper Ants was their name, consequently.

That species had been introduced by someone without notifying the bureau. John was not sure if he was going to be mad about that. Managing an ecosystem was made difficult when unforeseen factors were introduced. If he started getting mad about the side-effects of human habitation, then he would lose his hair before he hit his thirties, was his ultimate conclusion. He would notify the authorities and tell them not to persecute. The hammer of the law was best kept for invasive species that caused harm.

Their trip all around town ended by a recently created beach. There, a family of spotted seals was lazing about as seals did when ashore. Empty-faced and with all the self-assuredness of a pariah that found easy acceptance among animals, Nia laid down amongst them.

It was a picture for a comedy skit. A thin, blonde woman in a stainless white dress, lying among animals twice her size, consisting 50% of rolls of fat. Each individual seal, even the pups, radiated the lazy energy of a chubby man that was about to pass out on his couch. Unlike the chubby man, John found these animals absolutely adorable.

The Gamer knew that his taste in animals was and always had been rather skewed. Yes, he had a weakness for dogs and cats, as was normal for people. However, lengthy exposure to fantasy games had made him fall in love with a myriad of unusual creatures. Among them, the seal was probably the least unusual. A lot of people adored seals. How could they not, with those squishable bodies and these big, wet eyes? There was a reason why the German word for them was ‘sea dog’.

Seals had actually been occupying the Abyssal side of the Hudson for longer than John had. They had been introduced by the fishmen that lived in and around the river, most of which had been there before the Gamer had set foot in the city. Hell, he had wrestled control from Liberty Island from a fishman.

‘Wonder what happened to the rest of his subordinates,’ the Gamer thought, while carefully approaching the seals. They were so used to people, they didn’t even turn their heads towards him. He laid down next to Nia and wiggled around a bit, until the sand made for a nice, form-fitting back. “Wonder why no one stuffed sand into the back of a gaming chair yet.”

The waves washed over the gentle slope of the beach. The movements of the clear water were largely predictable, caused by the constant water traffic the current tourism created. A seal wobbled towards the water, then lazily rolled on its back. Another one snored loudly.

“Gravity,” Nia said.

“That makes sense,” John agreed.

The sky was a dull grey colour. Clouds covered the majority of it. In the distance was the shining Guild Hall. Lady Liberty was hardly visible at this distance, even for John. He let his head drop into the sand. It was coarse underneath him. It hadn’t been a day since he had laid on a beach. With the milder weather out here, there was a difference though.

John just lay there, shoulder to shoulder with Nia. He closed his eyes and let time pass. Second by second, minute by minute. He was entranced in the sounds of her breathing and of nature. He felt a shifting next to him, but remained still. Her leg still touched his.

“It’s lonely to lie alone, take this.”

The words did persuade him to open his eyes after all. He was then face to face with a seal pup, which Nia held above his head. The grey-furred thing was as adorable, if not more so, as the plushie John had won earlier. When he wordlessly took it, his hands sunk into fluff and blubber. “Thank you?” John could not suppress his entire confusion at the sudden water dog he placed down on his chest.

Confusion melted away, when the baby seal fell asleep. Its tiny head slowly sunk down, its eyes shut, and finally it breathed softly through that boopable nose. Finally, its head slightly turned, it fell asleep. It was in that moment that John understood every woman that he had ever heard squeal in the presence of a puppy, although he suppressed making that sound himself.

Nia scratched her own seal pup at the belly. It hugged her hand with its floppy fins. All of its fat little body moved with each motion of her fingers.

Her left hand, however, was for him. She found his right arm, travelled down, and eventually got to his fingers. Sand rubbed between their digits, as they locked into a loose and yet firm union. Happy together, they laid there, surrounded by adorable creatures.

About twenty minutes passed, in silent, peaceful tranquillity. John closed his eyes again. He was not tired enough to doze off, but he let his mind wander. With Nia next to him, his thoughts centred around their past and future. He giggled a bit to himself when he remembered what an oddball she had and could be. He remembered his longing for her when she had left after the fight at the White House.

What would Nia do with her future? Her military leadership was something she could put down whenever Fusion’s forces were strong enough to be a threat without the harem propping it up. A Divided Gates worthy level threat, that was. Would she perhaps open a flower shop? Would she tend to animals full time? Would she join Aclysia as a housewife? All of those were possibilities and it could have been none of them either. If Nia had figured it out already, John would have known about it.

“Mrrreow.”

John recognized that curious, demanding sound among any felines everywhere. He opened his eyes to find Velka standing next to him. In her beak, the Magryph had a small ring. “Who did you steal from today?” the Gamer asked immediately. He attempted to scratch her under the chin, but stopped when she dropped the little silver ring into his hand. “The hell?” he asked and observed it. Nothing unusual there.

He turned the silver ring in his fingers, looking for any sign of ownership on it. It was featureless, of no unusual size, and appeared to be all around normal. It was a gift. That was the most ludicrous explanation of all.

“Tell her she did good,” Nia demanded.

John looked first to her, then at the eagerly waiting bird-cat. “I suppose she did,” he surrendered. As much as he liked disparaging his one true pet, he had no qualms about giving her a compliment. “Good girl, have some boar meat.” He fed her a couple of chunks of what remained in his inventory.

With a couple of demanding shoves with the flat side of her beak, Velka proceeded to move the seal off John’s chest and then took its place. Over forty kilograms of chimera laid down on top of John. An acceptable way to reward her, alongside a cooperative effort between him and Nia to scratch Velka all over.

The Magryph purred and the afternoon progressed towards the evening.